This story was originally published in June 2013. 

We say rare, because it was close to impossible to find – even on the internet. The meeting took place in 2005, when Nelson Mandela was in Washington. You must read about how the almost-lost moment came about. Incredible..

This, from the LA Times:

It is often assumed, and misreported, that the two men met when Obama visited South Africa in 2006. But the meeting occurred a year earlier, when Mandela was in Washington.

Mandela, it turns out, was only vaguely aware of whose hand he was shaking and he initially turned down the visit from the then-new junior senator from Illinois. Obama had detoured to Mandela’s hotel from a meeting in Georgetown.

[more here]

But wait, there’s so much more.

The photograph is iconic in so many ways and is the only image of the two most famous black leaders in the world, together. By all accounts, the lighting and silhoette of Obama was not intentional, but happens to work very well.

One is standing, cutting a tall silhouette the world would soon recognize. The other, an aging icon, rests in a dimly lighted chair with a cane at his side.

On the surface, the photograph of Barack Obama meeting Nelson Mandela for the first and only time appears a passing-of-the-torch moment: the young leader paying homage, the older man imparting wisdom. But the image is not what it seems.

Further insight into that meeting, provides some gooseflesh moments. This, from Idaho Statesman:

That morning, Mandela delivered a speech at the NAACP. He was to meet with President George W. Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton later in the day, according to Zelda la Grange, Mandela’s personal assistant.

Frank Ferrari, a Mandela associate in the U.S., reached out and asked Mandela to make time for the junior senator from Illinois. With Mandela exhausted and facing two other major meetings that day, “we declined the request to add to his schedule,” La Grange said in an email recounting the incident.

“We were then told that Sen. Obama was expected to stand for the presidential election and he could well become the first black president of the USA,” she wrote. La Grange said she couldn’t remember who offered that description, possibly Ferrari. She didn’t necessarily buy it.

“Personally, I met that prediction with a bit of skepticism,” she said. “But then we agreed that he could pay a courtesy call on Mr. Mandela.”

Obama was riding in his aide’s Volkswagen Passat, headed to a meeting in Georgetown, when his scheduler called and asked whether he’d like to meet Mandela. The aide, David Katz, quickly headed to the Four Seasons Hotel.

The two were met by Mandela’s entourage of aides. Obama greeted them and then walked toward Mandela, who was in an armchair next to a window. Obama extended his hand; Mandela apologized for remaining seated, La Grange said.

Katz, who had grabbed his camera from his car, snapped the picture.

“I thought to myself at the time, well, no one will recognize this silhouette because he’s a junior senator,” Katz recalled. “But someday, if he happens to be president or something, it’ll be recognizable.”

About 10 minutes later, Obama left quietly.

“He was sort of pondering the gravity of what had just happened,” Katz said.

Obama never said much about that meeting. Because his name wasn’t on Mandela’s formal schedule, the moment was lost for years. Harris, the archivist, said he didn’t know the two had even met until 2010, when Obama sent Mandela a signed copy of the photo as a birthday gift.

Mandela, already infirm, asked his staff to place it behind his desk, next to a photo of Muhammad Ali.

“An inspiration to us all!” the inscription reads. Signed, simply, “Barack Obama.”

[more here]

And that was the moment that the two great men met.

It is vaguely possible that they will meet again.

The way Madiba is going, I wouldn’t bet against it.